Tassie Devil Appeal

Sharks occur in all the coastal waters and estuarine habitats around the 27,000 km of Australia's coast. As the population of the country increases (1900 = 3,765,300; 1950 = 8,307,500; 1990 = 17,046,700; 2004 = 20,204,789) many more people are entering coastal waters for recreational and commercial reasons throughout the year.

Although Australia continues to have a bad reputation concerning the threat of shark attacks to swimmers, the statistics do not support these contentions. In the last 50 years, there have been only 60 human fatalities (1.2 per year) in Australian waters from shark attack. Some years there are none, other years there have been up to three in a year, but the average remains around one per year. Yet each year 100,000s of swimmer-days take place on our beaches, harbours and rivers and the number is increasing with both increasing population and tourism.

The Australian Shark Attack File is coordinated at Taronga Zoo and is associated with the International Shark Attack File which is coordinated by the American Elasmobranch Society.

The Aims And Objectives Of The Shark Attack File:

  1. To chronicle all known information on shark attacks from Australian waters past, present and future. 
  2. To provide source material for scientific study to identify the common factors relating to the causes of attacks on humans.
  3. To provide summary information for public education and awareness and/or publication by the media.
  4. To publish information resulting from analysis of the acquired data.

Criteria For Inclusion:

Any human/shark interaction where there is:

  • a determined attempt to bite or where injury occurs, to a human (alive), 
  • the equipment worn or held is damaged, or
  • where imminent contact was averted by diversionary action by the victim or others (no injury to the human occurred), and
  • includes bites to small dinghies, kayaks, surfboards and similar equipment operated by the victim.